Gyula Mraz (manslaughter case)

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Charge:	Manslaughter
Sentence:	12 years
Years Imprisoned:	1
Year Crime:	1954
Year Convicted:	1955
Year Cleared:	1955
U.S. State or Country of Crime:	Australia
County or Region of Crime:	New South Wales
City of Crime:	Woolamai
Result:	Judicially Exonerated (Not released due to other charges.)
Summary of Case:	"Gyula Mraz was wrongly convicted in 1955 of manslaughter in the death of 30-year-old Isabella Joyce Wilson on September 27, 1954 in Woolamai, New South Wales, Australia. Mraz was charged with maliciously murdering Wilson. Mraz was 22 at the time of Wilson's death. His defense was that he and Wilson had known each other for some time, they had consensual sexual intercourse with Wilson eager to do so, and he did nothing to cause her death. The prosecution introduced no evidence during his trial that Wilson suffered any injury that could have killed her, and there was no evidence of any act of violence against her. After Mraz' three day trial the jury acquitted Mraz of murder. Mraz was sentenced to 12 years in prison at hard labor. The Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed Mraz' conviction, and Australia's High Court granted his leave to appeal. On November 18, 1955 the High Court allowed Mraz' appeal and ordered his manslaughter conviction quashed based on the trial judge's improper direction to the jury that Mraz could be convicted of manslaughter if the jury didn't find the evidence supported a murder conviction. The Court's ruling stated: "In the circumstances we feel strongly that the introduction of the topic of manslaughter may well have operated to lessen the appellant's chances of an acquittal and, accordingly, we are by no means satisfied that, had the jury been properly instructed, they would have found the appellant guilty either of murder or manslaughter, or that "a reasonable jury, after being properly directed, would, on the evidence properly admissible, without doubt convict""
Conviction Caused By:
Innocence Proved By:	"On November 18, 1955 Australia's High Court ordered Mraz's manslaughter conviction quashed on the basis the evidence didn't support his conviction in the absence of the trial judge's improper direction to the jury."
Defendant Aided By:
Compensation Awarded:
Was Perpetrator Identified?
Age When Imprisoned:	22
Age When Released:	24
Sex:	Male
Skin/Ethnicity:
Information Source 1:	Mraz v R (No 1) [1955] HCA 59; (1955) 93 CLR 493 (18 November 1955) (Quashing conviction based on insufficient evidence of guilt.
Information Location 1:	http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/HCA/1955/59.html
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Gyula Mraz (manslaughter case)

Charge:

Manslaughter

Sentence:

12 years

Years Imprisoned:

1

Year Crime:

1954

Year Convicted:

1955

Year Cleared:

1955

U.S. State or Country of Crime:

Australia

County or Region of Crime:

New South Wales

City of Crime:

Woolamai

Result:

Judicially Exonerated (Not released due to other charges.)

Summary of Case:

Conviction Caused By:

Innocence Proved By:

"On November 18, 1955 Australia's High Court ordered Mraz's manslaughter conviction quashed on the basis the evidence didn't support his conviction in the absence of the trial judge's improper direction to the jury."

Defendant Aided By:

Compensation Awarded:

Was Perpetrator Identified?

Age When Imprisoned:

22

Age When Released:

24

Sex:

Male

Skin/Ethnicity:

Information Source 1:

Mraz v R (No 1) [1955] HCA 59; (1955) 93 CLR 493 (18 November 1955) (Quashing conviction based on insufficient evidence of guilt.

Information Location 1:

http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/HCA/1955/59.html

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